One evening in 1998, OffBeat’s Managing Editor Joseph Irrera was perusing an article in a classical music magazine. The subject of the article was the formulation of a basic library of classical music. A 100-watt light bulb suddenly materialized above Joseph's head and the idea of the 100 Essential Louisiana CDs was born with Editor-in-Chief Jan Ramsey serving as midwife.

Thirteen writers were invited to make nominations. The writers were Jerry Brock, Rick Coleman, Roger Hahn, Jeff Hannusc...